Hello Bird-Spotters,
For a number of reasons I am in the market for a new spotting 'scope.
The main reasons being:
- a desire to try to keep up with the "Jones's" (or at least keep them in
sight);
- a need for a somewhat better quality scope than my old Carton 60 mm job for my
latest craze, Digiscoping.
For the uninitiated, Digiscoping is the practice of taking digital photos
through a spotting scope.
This is the latest method being employed by 'wanabes' who can't afford real
cameras and real telephoto lenses. :-)
The 'experts' are currently saying that the best scope for my purpose is the
Swarovski AT/ST 80 High Definition unit closely followed by the Leica APO
Televid 77.
They are probably right but there are a couple of technical problems with these
scopes that certainly don't affect general bird-watching use but are a (slight)
problem when digiscoping.
Apart from that, they are both very expensive scopes and also quite large units.
Recently, there have been advances in the smaller scopes, particularly in the 65
mm size, that suggest to me that they may be almost as suitable for my purposes
at a slightly lower cost.
So......
I am asking if anyone has had any experience with the following 65 mm spotting
scopes, either for plain birdwatching or in digiscoping mode:
- Carl Zeiss Diascope 65 T* FL;
- Swarovski Observation Telescope ATS 65 HD.
Factors I am really interested in are:
- opinions on resolution of detail of subject being viewed compared to other
scopes in the users experience;
- brightness of view;
- sharpness of image across the whole lens (there is a suggestion that the Zeiss
scope may have some distortion at the edges on low power of zoom);
- any evidence of "Chromatic Aberration" (splitting of the light causing
coloured fringes on some edges of image) particularly when used for digiscoping;
- general usability.
(Naturally, judgements on these points will be subjective but I can live with
that.)
As I don't really want to start a 'Spotting-scope War' it may be best to reply
to me direct at:
Any one else who is interested in the same topic could contact me and I will
endeavour to pass on any useful information I receive.
If I do receive worthwhile information I will post a summary on Birding-Aus in
the near future.
Thanking you all in anticipation
Bob Inglis
Woody Point
Queensland
Australia.
Birding-Aus is on the Web at
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